I've never read a writer with a more fertile imagination' DIANA GABALDON

An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, novella from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author.

FOR FANS OF CHARLAINE HARRIS AND ANNE RICE.

My name is Anita Blake. I'm a U. S. Marshal for the Preternatural Branch, and I always have my friend's back. Even when they ask me to risk everything...

Rafael, king of the wererats, is facing a challenge to his crown. He wants me, one of his closest allies, to help him take down a dangerous opponent unlike any he's fought before.

But some of the wererats fear that Rafael is too dependent on me and my ties to the vampire world. They believe that there is only room in America for one supernatural king, and that Rafael will abandon them as prey for the bloodsuckers.

A new challenger has arisen among Rafael's enemies... one who is younger, hungrier and has dark secrets that could destroy both the wererats and the vampires. Now, my friend must go into the magical heart of his people to find the power and violence that he needs to save them all - or die trying.

Readers can't get enough of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, series:

'Anita Blake novels are my addiction'

'Vampires, zombies and guns, oh my!'

'I have loved every single book in this amazing series, have fallen in love and lust with many characters and desperately hope that there will be more'

'I am hooked'

'I couldn't love Anita and her adventures with the supernatural community any more

'A sex-positive, kick-ass female protagonist' STARBURST

'I've never read a writer with a more fertile imagination' DIANA GABALDON

An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, short story from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author.

FOR FANS OF CHARLAINE HARRIS AND ANNE RICE.

My name is Anita Blake and I'm proud of my battle scars. They mean I'm stronger than whatever tried to hurt me.

My friend is getting married. But even on the happiest of days there are wounds that need healing. She wants me to talk to her thirteen-year-old brother, Tomas, who is struggling to recover from a gunshot wound. He's depressed and demoralised - convinced he'll never run again.

But what if I tell him about my own scars? The times I have survived the worst? With wereleopards Micah and Nathaniel by my side sharing their own survival stories, maybe we can convince Tomas that life is worth fighting for...

Readers can't get enough of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, series:

'Anita Blake novels are my addiction'

'Vampires, zombies and guns, oh my!'

'I have loved every single book in this amazing series, have fallen in love and lust with many characters and desperately hope that there will be more'

'I am hooked'

'I couldn't love Anita and her adventures with the supernatural community any more

A collection of sixteen sci-fi and fantasy stories edited by No.1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton and author William McCaskey.

A child's wish for her father comes true. The end of the world has never been so much fun. Conquering personal demons becomes all too real. It's not always about winning; sometimes it's about showing up for the fight. It's about loving your life's work, and jobs that make you question everything.

In this anthology, seventeen authors have woven together brand-new stories that speak to the darkness and despair that life brings while reminding us that good deeds, humour, love, sacrifice, dedication and following our joy can ignite a light that burns so bright the darkness cannot last.

Laurell K. Hamilton and William McCaskey are joined by Kevin J. Anderson, Griffin Barber, Patricia Briggs, Larry Correia, Kacey Ezell, Monalisa Foster, Robert E. Hampson, John G. Hartness, Jonathan Maberry, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Jessica Schlenker, Sharon Shinn, M. C. Sumner, Patrick M. Tracy and Michael Z. Williamson in this collection.

'The older the zombie, the bigger the death needed to raise it.'

After a few centuries, the only death 'big enough' is a human sacrifice.

I know because I'm an animator. My name is Anita Blake. Working for Animators, Inc. is just a job - like selling insurance. But all the money in the world wasn't enough for me to take on the particular job Harold Gaynor was offering. Somebody else did, though - a rogue animator.

Now he's not just raising the dead... he's raising Hell. And it's up to me to stop it.

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, embarks on a race against time in the name of justice. If you love Charlaine Harris and Anne Rice, you won't be able to resist the new novel from Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton.

'I've never read a writer with a more fertile imagination' Diana Gabaldon

My name is Anita Blake and I thought nothing could surprise me. But what if the wrong man is about to be executed?

When a fellow U.S. Marshal flies me in on an emergency consult, I know time is running short. Evidence is mounting against a young wereleopard who stands accused of killing his uncle in the most gruesome and bloody way possible.

In this tiny Michigan town, the pressure from the cops is escalating, the victim's family want retribution and a warrant of execution is already under way. But something feels off about the murder - the evidence doesn't add up.

With the locals up in arms and their fear of supernatural beings growing, I must race to uncover the truth. I cannot let the authorities kill an innocent man. But what if I'm already too late?

Readers can't get enough of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, series:

'Anita Blake novels are my addiction'

'Vampires, zombies and guns, oh my!'

'I have loved every single book in this amazing series, have fallen in love and lust with many characters and desperately hope that there will be more'

'I am hooked'

'I couldn't love Anita and her adventures with the supernatural community any more'

In Crimson Death, the twenty-fifth Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, adventure by Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton, Anita is tested like never before in a showdown that will delight readers of Charlaine Harris and Anne Rice.

'Hamilton is still thrilling fans...with her amazing multifaceted characters and intricate multilayered world, a mix of erotic romance, crime-drama, and paranormal/fantasy fiction' Library Journal

Some say love is a great motivator, but hatred gets the job done, too.

My name is Anita Blake. I'm a vampire hunter and necromancer, and I'm about to learn that evil is in the eye of the beholder...

I've never seen Damian, my vampire servant, so vulnerable. He's being bombarded with violent nightmares and blood sweats, but now is the time I need him most. The ruthless vampire who created him might be losing control, allowing rogue vampires to run wild and break one of their kind's few strict taboos.

I'm joining forces with my friend Edward to stop the carnage, and Damian will be at our side, even if it means travelling to a place that couldn't be less welcoming to a vampire, an assassin and a necromancer.

Ireland.

She is Princess Meredith and she is heir to a throne - IF she can stay alive long enough to claim it. Unlike most of her kind, Merry is part human and all too mortal, as her cousin and arch rival knows only too well. For a deadly game is being played in the Faerie court and whoever produces an heir first wears the crown. But as she auditions her royal guard - illustrious warriors equally at home with gun and blade or spell - for the role of future king and father of her child, Merry is somewhat distracted from her career as a private investigator.

Then, in her adoptive home, in the City of Angels, people start dying in mysterious, frightening ways. What the human police don't realize is that the killer is hunting the Fey as well. It seems chaos awaits, threatening the very existence of the place known as Faerie is in grave danger and Merry finds herself facing an ancient evil that threatens the very fabric of her world. And that's just the day job...

'I don't date vampires. I kill them.'

My name is Anita Blake. Vampires call me the Executioner. What I call them isn't repeatable.

Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs. I know better. I've seen their victims. I carry the scars ... But now a serial killer is murdering vampires - and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants me to find the killer.

I am back in St Louis and trying to live a normal life - as normal as possible for someone who is a legal vampire executioner and a US Marshal. I have my lovers, my friends and their children, school programs to attend. In the midst of all this ordinary happiness a vampire from my past reaches out. She was supposed to be dead, but the Mother of All Darkness is the first vampire, and it's hard to kill a god.

The Mother of All Darkness believes that the triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude with me and the werewolf Richard Zeeman has enough power for her to regain a body and to emigrate to the New World. But the body she wants to possess is already taken ...

And if the Mother of All Darkness can't succeed in taking over my body for herself, she means to see that no one else has the use of it, ever again.

Once you tell someone certain things, like, say, you got mailed a human head in a box, they tend to think you're crazy.

Anita Blake's reputation has taken some hits. Not on the work front, where she has the highest kill count of all the legal vampire executioners in the country, but on the personal front. No one seems to trust a woman who sleeps with the monsters. Still, when a vampire serial killer sends her a head from Las Vegas, Anita has to warn Sin City's local authorities what they're dealing with. Only it's worse than she thought. Several officers and one executioner have been slain - paranormal style...

Anita heads to Las Vegas, where she's joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward hiding behind his mild-mannered persona. It's a good thing Edward always has her back, because, when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses "tiger" too strongly to ignore it. The were-tigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher...

When Anita Blake meets with prospective client Tony Bennington, who is desperate to have her reanimate his recently deceased wife, she is full of sympathy for his loss. Anita knows something about love, and she knows everything there is to know about loss.

But what she also knows, though Tony Bennington seems unwilling to be convinced, is that the thing she can do as a necromancer isn't the miracle he thinks he needs. The creature that Anita could coerce to step out of the late Mrs. Bennington's grave would not be the lovely Mrs. Bennington.

Not really. And not for long.

'Most women complain that there are no single straight men left. I'd just like to meet one that's human.'

I'm Anita Blake, expert on creatures of the night. I've dined with shapeshifters, danced with werewolves, and been wooed - but not won - by Jean-Claude, the Vampire Master of the City.

And now a darkly dangerous vampire named Alejandro has hit town. He wants me for his human servant. A war of the undead has begun. Over me ...